No offense, but you don't see anything to address? Please correct me if I'm wrong or if something has changed, but if MSFT bought out Yahoo today, they could kill all future development on Zimbra. Zimbra's supposed to be open source, right? It sort of defeats the purpose of being open source if MSFT can buy you out and kill you because of some silly little attribution clause in the license...

Well, I know, and it's because I like Zimbra so much that I'm even concerned. It would be a real pity if MSFT killed off Zimbra and all the hard work the Zimbra guys have put into it. Seems so simple to fix the attribution clause so that in the case of a buyout anyone, including the current Zimbra guys themselves could quit MSFT and spin off another company to further develop and sell Zimbra services. If this doesn't get fixed, then the Zimbra developers could be locked out of further developing their own product.

11-04-2008, 03:25 PM

bjquinn

Quote:

Originally Posted by dkarp

I am not a lawyer. I believe that this guy is

Look, I'd love to believe that, but first of all, there's not a positive consensus in the responses to the post you linked me to (I've read it before), and secondly, there may be lawyers on that site, but the heading for the post says --

Authored by: ANONYMOUS on Tuesday, February 05 2008...

I'm not sure at all that whoever authored that anonymous post was a lawyer.

11-04-2008, 04:03 PM

y@w

Quote:

Originally Posted by bjquinn

Well, I know, and it's because I like Zimbra so much that I'm even concerned. It would be a real pity if MSFT killed off Zimbra and all the hard work the Zimbra guys have put into it. Seems so simple to fix the attribution clause so that in the case of a buyout anyone, including the current Zimbra guys themselves could quit MSFT and spin off another company to further develop and sell Zimbra services. If this doesn't get fixed, then the Zimbra developers could be locked out of further developing their own product.

If Zimbra and Yahoo don't think that their own work and investments are at risk, then I don't think that the community should be concerned about losing it either. We've been through this discussion in the forums before...

11-05-2008, 09:08 AM

dijichi2

Zimbra is an asset of Yahoo. As a closed commercial product (and with the current source license/model it is also effectively closed) it is a major asset to Zimbra in potential negotiations with Microsoft - it is worth a lot to Microsoft to kill it and protect exchange. This is not underhand/evil doings, it's simple business. Zimbra/Yahoo's interests are not aligned with the opensource community, but their shareholders. This is their duty and cannot be blamed for acting like this. Having a restrictive license has certainly 'hurt' the opensource community and restricted growth of a community, however it has also had major, major benefits - such as protecting forks and allowing commercial investment that has produced the groundbreaking product that Zimbra is today.

11-24-2008, 02:05 AM

pedz

Hi all with Jerry Yang leaving Yahoo and him being apposed to Microsoft buying Yahoo, where does that leave Yahoo and Zimbra now?
I'm about to install Zimbra at work but hearing this is a bit worrying.

And so is dijichi2 unfortunately. This is a no brainer. Its simple. Zimbra cannot be forked, Not even by Zimbra employees so their work at least on ZWC is dead. The server is supposedly on the MPL license so I guess someone can start all over from there and write a new frontend from scratch. Not sure how many years that would take. Yahoo values their investment in Zimbra as a bargaining tool with Microsoft. They are quite happy with the license as it stands they will not change it. Open source does not apply here. Now lets connect the dots shall we? This is pretty strait forward. Microsoft has a flagship product that goes by the name of Microsoft Exchange (TM) (R). They generate billions of dollars from this product and now they will have purchased a product that is the biggest threat to their flagship product. Why on earth would they keep that threat around. This is just common sense. If Microsoft purchases Yahoo then Zimbra will be shuttered. Maybe they may replace OWA with ZWC and sell it as part of Exchange who knows. I don't see that happening. But the server will be killed. Share holders come first not the survival of open source. The attribution clause is the boomerang that will allow Microsoft to shut down Zimbra in the name of what is best for their shareholders. Pray that this doesn't happen or may Zimbra rest in peace.

12-01-2008, 12:23 AM

uxbod

From what I have read MS$ is only really looking at the search engine side of things so personally I am not particularly worried (at the moment).

12-09-2008, 01:35 PM

Jbrabander

Quote:

Originally Posted by andydread

Maybe they may replace OWA with ZWC and sell it as part of Exchange

I can't see that happening. OWA and Exchange obviously play very well together. I'm not sure how much overhauling Zimbra would need to work directly with Exchange. And OWA likely has features that the Zimbra web side doesn't. (from being around longer and being built to work with Exchange)